Of Songs Unsung
by ncfan
Summary: 50 truths about the parents of the present generation. First Impressions, Second Looks, Adventures in Matrimony and so on.


Just so you know, I focused on some parents more than others (Naruto and the Sand Sibs especially, because I just love Minato, Kushina, Karura and the Kazekage), so some only get two mentions in this.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

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**Meetings and First Impressions**

When Aburame Shibi met Nodoka Shizuka, they were going on a mission together. Shibi's sister, a close friend of Shizuka's, had suggested that Shizuka join them. Shizuka thought that Shibi was slightly creepy. Shibi thought Shizuka talked too much, even though Shizuka didn't talk a whole lot more than Shibi and his sister.

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Lee's parents shared their son's enthusiasm for battle. Isoroku's rage against the training post was particularly virulent one day. He sent his foot flying straight through it, and the sound of the wood splintering must have drawn Akiko's attention. Later that day a black-haired woman playfully asked him if he needed any help finding a new training post.

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Namikaze Minato always said his life was boring until he met Uzumaki Kushina. The orphanage was decidedly overcrowded, but he had a room to himself until two red-haired children showed up. Uzumaki Kushina and her twin Arashi brought a fair degree of chaos into Minato's life. Oddly enough, he found he rather liked it.

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Near the end of the Second War, after a crushing battle in the River country nineteen-year-old jonin Sabaku no Takeo ran into a young girl. By her size and the fact that she only looked to be in her early teens, he decided that she was probably a genin. She tearfully asked him if he would help him find her teammate. When Takeo answered honestly that her teammate was probably dead, she angrily refuted him. When, nearing evening, Takeo saw the girl half-carrying a small red-haired boy back to camp, he couldn't help but smile. He later learned that her name was Karura.

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Haruno Isao met his future wife while helping other members of the ANBU escort refugees from a town bordering the Land of Wind. They were attacked by Sand nin while they made a long and lonely procession back to Konohagakure. Isao's sword was knocked out of his hand, and his arm broken. Just as he was about to be killed, one of the civilian refugees came up behind the Sand nin and hit him over the head with the flat of Isao's sword. When the Sand nin fell, Isao found himself looking into the gray eyes of a young woman with strawberry blonde hair. She introduced herself as Aishuu Sonomi, who smiled sheepishly and handed his sword back to him after helping him up. Isao was utterly speechless.

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One day, the original Ino-Shika-Cho trio was on shore leave during the early years of the Third War, relaxing in an outdoors café. A black-haired, angry-looking woman walked up to Shikaku and snapped that he filed a mission report incorrectly. Shikaku, who had been busy watching the clouds, immediately capitulated, telling her he'd refile it later. She said her name was Kiyoraka Yoshino, and that he was to report to her when he "planned on moving his lazy butt". After she was gone, Inoichi burst out laughing and Choza snorted. "Man, five minutes and she's already got you whipped."

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Inuzuka Tsume and her cousin Unari knew each other all their lives. They were the best of friends from the start. They could tell each other anything, and they were inseparable, even in spite of their wildly differing personalities.

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Mikoto was fifteen years old when she met an older boy, a second cousin in the Uchiha clan, while on a mission. His name was Fugaku, and he was strangely solicitous of her well-being. Mikoto, who, apart from the somewhat unsettling attentions of the Hyuuga clan heir, had little experience with men, was flustered and pleased. Her liking of the older man evaporated abruptly when she learned that they had been betrothed since her birth.

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Hyuuga Hiashi's somewhat arrogant attitude did not endear himself to many. Apart from his younger twin, there was at first only one person who it seemed could stand him. Uchiha Mikoto was sweet and kind, and handled Hiashi's borderline elitism with calm patience. Hiashi was therefore speechless with fury and grief when he discovered that she was engaged (albeit against her will) to a cousin. For three years he sank into sharp bitterness, until he went on a highly dangerous mission. He was knocked to his feet, and before he knew it a small-framed medical kunoichi with long glossy blue-black hair and wide pale eyes was at his side. "Are you alright?" Tenrai Akahana asked quietly.

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The day Hyuuga Hizashi met Kouyou Mihoko, he honestly thought she was a banshee. He was in his middle twenties, fighting against the Rock, when a Rock nin came up on his blind spot and tried to stab him in the back. The next thing he knew, there was a dead body beside him and a dark-haired, gray-eyed woman screaming obscenities at him over the howling wind about not watching his back. Needless to say, not an auspicious beginning.

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Choza met Fukuyoka Kirei at a gourmet restaurant. She was one of the chefs, and he had a complaint about the food that had been sent to him; the serving sizes weren't large enough. He literally ran into her as he brushed aside the cloth flap separating the kitchen from the main restaurant.

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Inoichi didn't particularly want to work in his family's flower shop. He had been around Shikaku for long enough to view flowers as a threat to his masculinity. Then, one day, his mother started to employ a pretty girl named Kyuuka Chizu. After that, Inoichi started spending _much_ more time in the flower shop.

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Tenchi Hiromi always had a passion for fixing things. She was an assembly line worker at a local textiles factory in Konoha, and she was often called upon to repair the complex and outdated machinery. So when Hiromi met recovering alcoholic Katsumi Kenshin, she didn't know why, but she felt the insane urge to fix _him._

.x.X.x.

**Friendship and a Second Look**

After that admittedly less-than-stellar start, Kirei held absolutely no hard feelings towards Choza, but after paying the cost of the food he had accidentally ruined by sending it flying out of her hands, he offered to make it up to her by taking her out to dinner. Kirei was a plump, pleasant young woman who let little bother her. While they were eating, they discovered a shared love for barbecue.

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Takeo crossed paths with the little blonde girl again two years later. She was no longer the slightly hysterical young genin he'd met, but a confident kunoichi, calm in battle and self-assured in peace, with firm muscle and glowing eyes. Karura was a little disconcerted when he revealed that he already knew her name; he was more than a little, no, very, annoyed when she admitted that she had "absolutely no idea who you are". When he managed to get over himself, they discovered that they actually liked each other.

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At first, Minato was closer to Arashi than he was to Kushina. The boy was a great deal of fun to be around, with his endless ability to think up pranks to perform; Minato, despite trying to abide by the rules, often fell victim to the siren song allure of mischief. When the twins became genin, however, he discovered that Kushina was much better for sparring with. Minato started spending more time with her too after that. They mostly talked about taijutsu techniques and the katana, Kushina's favorite weapon, over a bowl of Ichiraku ramen.

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Kouyou Mihoko didn't think much of the Hyuuga at first. Granted, Hyuuga Hizashi was much less arrogant than most of his clan, but he still drove her crazy. Plus, she was in the ANBU; the ANBU didn't allow for weakness of any kind. This guy had nearly gotten gored in the back because he hadn't been watching his back! Wasn't the Byakugan's sight supposed to be absolute? She started thinking a little differently about him the next day when she was cold and hungry and discovered that the Hyuuga could cook. Maybe she could grow to like this Hyuuga Hizashi after all.

.x.X.x.

**Growing Closer and Falling in Love**

Tsume and Unari weren't exactly sure when they crossed the line between friendship and love. Tsume just knows that after a night of underage drinking when they were seventeen, they somehow ended up in bed together. As much as they would have liked to attribute it to the alcohol, they realized that the line had been crossed, and they might as well enjoy it.

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The nervousness Takeo experienced before his first battle was small fish nothing in comparison to his apprehension before asking Karura to marry him for the first time. He had never been so nervous in his life, except perhaps when he was evaluated by his uncle the Sandaime for eligibility for chunin status so many years ago. Her reaction utterly horrified him. Karura, thinking he was joking (though he saw nothing amusing about it), laughed in his face and asked him if the sun had warped his mind. It was only after he stalked off in fury and mortification that she realized that he was being serious.

Later, Takeo ranted about it to Chiyo (they were often sent on missions together, accompanied by Yashamaru; Takeo was the Wind user who watched Chiyo's back while she worked her magic with her puppets) and swore that he _would_ marry her yet. Chiyo rolled her eyes and muttered, "Fine. I wish you joy of each other. You'll kill each other, but what the hell? Maybe things will be quieter around here."

Sasori evidently found something wrong with the whole thing, because as Takeo was leaving he slipped a tiny chakra-loaded (able to perform his bidding from a distance) puppet spider in his clothing. Takeo found it later that night when it jumped on his face and adhered to him. "SASORI!"

Karura, in the meantime, wailed about it to her thunderstruck brother, her secretly seething red-haired puppeteer best friend, and her somewhat abashed students.

In spite of all the fuss raised, Takeo probably wasn't truly in love with Karura until he asked the second time.

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Minato knew Kushina for nearly eleven years before they started dating. They were best friends for so long, and then suddenly something happened. He found himself thinking about her at the strangest times (Jiraiya chuckled and remarked that there _had _to be a girl on his mind, because he couldn't remember the last time he'd seen Minato look distracted during a summoning lesson), and blushing slightly when she came into the room. It probably coincided with Kushina going from a skinned-knee tomboyish little girl to a drop-dead gorgeous kunoichi. He asked her out the day after she joined ANBU.

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Hiashi wasn't the sort of man to admit when he'd been had. He wasn't quite sure how Tenrai Akahana had managed to worm her way into his heart, but when he finally figured it out, he wasn't sure he wanted her to leave.

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Shibi and Shizuka weren't sure when they fell in love; it just happened. They were both quiet, calm people, and they could accept this with ease. Shizuka's only stipulation was that the kikai stayed _out_ of the bedroom at night.

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Shikaku sighed in frustration every time he thought of Yoshino. The woman was loud, she was angry, she was annoying, she was _troublesome._ The problem was, he couldn't _stop_ thinking about her. She was on his mind, non-stop, all the time. It was the most troublesome and most wonderful sensation he had ever had.

.x.X.x.

**Adventures in Matrimony**

Mikoto was entirely unsure about marrying Fugaku throughout the whole time the preparations for their marriage was taking place. He was cold and distant (the allure of the "quiet" guy had long since passed), and if it weren't for duty to the clan, she would have preferred to have nothing to do with him. But when she saw him looking just as nervous as her about the whole thing, she felt a rare moment of tenderness for her husband-to-be.

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Aburame clan weddings were strictly casual affairs. They were held outside in the forest on a sunny day, and for all the females attending and/or participating in the wedding, wearing outfits with skirts was completely optional. Usually there were ten guests at the most, members of the immediate family and close cousins, aunts or uncles. They would return to the Aburame compound (a place with wide, open streets and an unusual amount of cultivated-but-slightly-wild gardens) for an informal meal where they would be joined by both many more members of the Aburame clan and friends from outside the clan. On the day of her wedding, Shizuka learned just how relaxed Aburame clan members could be, especially at weddings.

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"Third time's the charm," was a saying that very well described Karura and Takeo's relationship. The third time Takeo asked Karura to marry him, she accepted. That was Karura's first venture into the world of the upper class.

The wedding was quite lavish, and the preparations embarrassed Takeo nearly as much as they did Karura. Being fitted for a wedding kimono, in a material Karura had never been in such close proximity with before, let alone wore, was the most humiliating experience of her life. Takeo never forgave himself for letting his cousin tear into Karura (His cousin was a snob in the extreme, and Karura was not high-class enough for her tastes), and Karura refused to associate with the assorted cousins by marriage after _that_ incident, which had resulted in said snob getting her nose broken and her jaw fractured (the civilians in the family were horrified; the shinobi, the kunoichi in particular were secretly nodding and congratulating her, and Karura would never know how much she rose in their esteem that day); Karura's only injury was a long scratch on her arm. They both decided it was worth it after seeing one of the great-aunts, a woman they both despised, faint dead away at the sight of blood.

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Hyuuga weddings, especially for those of the main house, are supposed to be decorous, solemn, sumptuous affairs. All the members of the immediate family as well as many close cousins attend, and the amount of attention lavished on the bride and groom is often almost unwonted. Hiashi and Akahana were married in a small, private ceremony about as far from the Hyuuga compound as they could get.

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Isao and Sonomi's marriage started out as a happy affair. It soon turned to worry and anger. The Haruno clan was a declining but ancient clan. Isao, it turned out, had been engaged to marry a cousin since his school days. The problem was, Isao didn't find out about that until _after_ he married Sonomi. Isao's parents, who were the leaders of the Haruno clan, demanded that he immediately divorce his new bride and marry Haruno Teki. Isao refused. As a result, even though he was their only child, Isao's parents formally disinherited Isao. Isao and Sonomi's relationship was only temporarily strained. The Haruno elders may have come between Isao and his inheritance, but they couldn't come between Isao and Sonomi.

.x.X.x.

**Rough Patches**

Any strife in Shikaku and Yoshino's marriage took the form of small spats. They weren't huge, earth-shattering arguments that spelled doom for a marriage, but small, nit-picking spats that showed each other that they still loved each other. Yoshino constantly got on to Shikaku about his less-than-phenomenal work habits, and Shikaku complained about Yoshino's incessant nagging.

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Akahana was always a very laid-back, pliant woman who rarely challenged her husband's will. There was one matter with which she always took offense. Even though Hiashi was always slow to activate the cursed seal of anyone of his Branch House relatives, Akahana took umbrage at the seal's even existing at all. She questioned the cruelty of there existing a seal that could inflict pain on the wearer at all, and as a medical kunoichi, she was concerned about the effects the seal, even when dormant, had on the body (There's a reason one doesn't normally see a Branch House member reach old age). Predictably, Hiashi ignored her.

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Mikoto and Fugaku never really loved each other. Their marriage was arranged, and they stayed together only out of a sense of duty. At best they were friends (they grew somewhat closer in later life), and at worst their behavior around each other tended to be cold; Fugaku's seeming inability to show affection only worsened matters. Their marriage tended to be contentious, though after Itachi was born Mikoto made an effort to stop arguing with her husband, and Fugaku, whether consciously or not, followed suit.

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About a year after their first daughter Mayumi was born, Kenshin started drinking again. Unfortunately for Mayumi and Hiromi, Kenshin tended to get violent when he drank. Hiromi learned what it was to live in fear the day her husband came home drunk and forced his will on his unwilling wife.

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Tsume and Unari's relationship started to deteriorate after Hana was born. They weren't married for one thing, and they were barely nineteen. Moreover, Tsume was the clan heiress, and Unari was nothing more than a poor relation. The clan elders started urging them to separate. Tsume and Unari defied them, but the damage was done and their relationship was never the same after that.

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The second mission they weren't sent on together, Hizashi and Mihoko became lovers. They were alone out in the wilderness, and both were trying to find an escape from the conventions pressed on them. While they were out there, Mihoko caught sight of the cursed seal on Hizashi's forehead. Angrily, she demanded to know what it was and why it was there. After being told of the Hyuuga practice of branding Branch House members, Mihoko developed a decided dislike for the Hyuuga clan in general, the Main House in particular.

.x.X.x.

**Birth**

The Ino-Shika-Cho trio was supposed to be an all _male_ cell. A kunoichi with inferior chakra reserves and in Shikaku's slightly chauvinistic opinion inferior potential would disrupt, possibly fatally, the unity of the cell. Inoichi, however, wanted a daughter rather than a son, so he was predictably quite thrilled when Chizu gave birth to a small, slightly premature baby girl, just a day after Yoshino had Shikamaru. What he was _not_ thrilled with was the ridicule he received—and still receives—from his teammates for having a daughter instead of a son.

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Yoshino had wanted a daughter. It was agreed by everyone that Yoshino was hell-bent on having a daughter. Unfortunately for Yoshino, Shikaku had his revenge in the form of Nara Shikamaru, six pounds and nine ounces at birth. Yoshino was not a happy woman (she knew full well that Shikaku had no intention of having another child after this), but she was able to find one bright spot. "Oh, well," she sighed, staring down at Shikamaru while he napped in her arms. "Maybe he'll be good for heavy lifting when he's older."

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When Temari was born, Takeo accidentally let slip a tactless comment concerning the disappointment of the future heir of the Sabaku clan being a girl. Yashamaru could have strangled him, and Karura, for the sake of her husband's health and her own sanity, pretended she was still too out of it due to anesthetics to hear. When Kankuro was born a little over nine months later, the atmosphere in the hospital room was much lighter.

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Isao and Sonomi were both overjoyed when, after nearly two years of marriage, Sonomi had a little girl one rainy day in March, christened Sakura after Sonomi's late mother. Isao couldn't help but notice something odd, though. "Sonomi?" he called from the baby's room. "Is it just me, or does our child have pink hair?"

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Six years after Mayumi was born, Hiromi gave birth to her second daughter, Lian, called Tenten. For a time, things were better. Kenshin stopped drinking again, and tried to find work again (He'd been fired because of his almost constant drunkenness). But soon, very soon, he started hitting the bottle again, and as soon as his second child was old enough to catch his attention in more ways than just crying, she became a target of his wrath as well. How Tenten survived to age three is anyone's guess.

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Hizashi never knew that his former lover was pregnant until the day she showed up on his doorstep with a squalling baby in her arms. Their son had inherited little in the way of physical appearance from his mother, apart from a slightly sallow skin tone. Hizashi, despite his total shock, offered to marry her to provide the child with a stable two-parent household. Mihoko flatly refused. "I was going to keep him until I saw his eyes. After what you told me, I don't want anything to do with the Hyuuga Clan. His name's Neji, and he's your problem now, Hizashi."

.x.X.x.

**The Pain of Separation**

Chizu and Inoichi divorced when Ino was five. Chizu's nerves were shot thanks to her husband's perilous career, and Ino's birth (though Inoichi made sure that his daughter was never made aware of this) had for some reason made things particularly contentious between them. Chizu signed off all rights to custody and quickly remarried to a wealthy merchant and they moved to Lightning country. Inoichi, who despite the divorce was still in love with his wife, was devastated. Yoshino had to take care of Ino for several days afterwards because Inoichi was too busy getting drunk with Shikaku and Choza.

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Neji's parents separated before he was born. It happened when Mihoko finally hit her breaking point. After hearing what she had from Hizashi about the Branch Family cursed seal, she realized that she didn't want anything to do with the Hyuuga Clan. They parted, not happily, but they parted. A week later, Mihoko realized she was pregnant.

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Eventually, Tsume's short temper and the pressures from the clan elders for them to separate was too much for Unari to take. He left his lover and two children behind him, and after resigning, was never again seen in the Fire Country. Kiba was two when this transpired, and to this day he doesn't know his father's name.

.x.X.x.

**Death**

Isoroku and Akiko always knew their relationship wasn't built on foundations that would last a lifetime. They didn't marry for just that reason. They could move on at any time they wanted to, without marriage to complicate things, with no hard feelings.

Akiko told Isoroku she was pregnant two months before he went on a mission he never returned from. And amazingly, Akiko was more upset than she had ever expected to be.

Because truth be told, they did love each other.

When she gave birth to Lee, she thought he was his father's spitting image, even though he had her black hair and fair skin. When Lee was a small toddler, she finally joined her lover in the abyss and found that she regretted…

Nothing.

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Akahana was very nervous when she became pregnant for the second time. Birthing Hinata had been very hard on her body; it had taken her weeks to recover from her first pregnancy.

Hiashi had assured her that everything would be alright; he barely seemed to care anymore. Or if he did, he was the most consummate actor in the world. She wanted to believe that she would survive. She really did. But she was also a med nin; she was trained to see the truth clearly. Akahana knew she wouldn't live to see her children grow up.

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Katsumi Hiromi died when her youngest daughter was three. There were many causes proposed for her sudden death. Some suggested natural causes. Others suggested something to do with the unhealthy air and positively toxic atmosphere she worked in. Still more theorized suicide. But throughout everything, there was a whisper, a dark whisper that never quite died completely, that Katsumi Kenshin had finally hit his wife too hard.

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The night the Kyuubi attacked, Sonomi begged her husband not to join the combatants against it. Their home had been destroyed, Sakura was wailing brokenheartedly and all around them people were screaming and dying. Sonomi could see no way Isao could avoid being killed by that…that _monster_. But Isao did not heed her words. He kissed her goodbye, gave her an almost manic grin (many shinobi wore that smile thanks to the Kyuubi), and, dead or alive, Sonomi never saw him again.

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Mikoto and Fugaku both always knew that when they died, it wasn't going to be a good death. The night they died was muggy, warm and dry, yet the heavens seemed to rain down tears of blood from Itachi's sword. Fugaku felt the sword pierce through his heart and wondered if that had been the fire necessary to start his ice-cased soul throbbing again. Because he thought that maybe he _had_ loved his wife.

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Karura was first to go. That still amazed Takeo years after it happened, because he'd always figured that someone would 'get' him first.

As much as he didn't want to admit it, Takeo regretted his decision to seal the Shukaku inside his youngest child. More for the pain and terror it inflicted on Karura than anything else; the screaming and cursing emanating from the chamber in the Kazekage's compound the night she gave birth let him know (as if he didn't already) exactly what his wife thought about all of this.

When, twelve years later, he himself was dying, Takeo smiled. Whatever she thought of him, he would be seeing Karura again soon. And that was enough, more than enough, to make him smile at the last.

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When Kushina became pregnant, it just seemed like a capstone on a happy life. The war was over, Konoha had won, Minato was Hokage, and there was now a baby on the way. They planned on getting married after their son was born. Everything seemed so perfect.

Then, the Kyuubi came, and everything went to hell. While the fox made clear its intention to destroy Konoha, Kushina was in labor. Her labor was barely six hours long, but it took a terrible toll on her body. After four hours of battle, Minato barely managed to temporarily cage the Kyuubi's chakra. But he had to act fast; the cage would not hold for long, and there needed to be a host. He tore to Kushina's house, intent on seeking her advice, and found a sight that shaped the actions of the rest of his life horribly. What he found was his lover lying in a pool of blood, a screaming, amniotic fluid-covered baby nearby.

Minato never would have done what he did if he had had even the slightest idea that Kushina was still alive. He thought that sealing the Kyuubi within Naruto would make the child seen as a hero (Foresight was never Minato's strong point, and he wasn't thinking very clearly by this time). What he didn't expect was for Kushina to still be _alive_. What he didn't expect was for Kushina to wake up halfway through the sealing process. She screamed and wailed, begging him to stop, and ultimately bled to death watching her lover seal a demon into their only child. Minato died five minutes after Kushina, barely six feet away from a woman he had known and loved since he was nine years old.

Retur


End file.
